I was just a young ‘un when this came out, but it sealed my life-long love of The Fall. The original, by R Dean Taylor, is an undisputed Northern Soul classic, perfect for those headspinning routines in Wigan on speed at 2 am (such is my understanding of the scene). The Fall had even referenced Northern Soul in Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul , but Smith obviously held a weird affection for the genre, if not the scene, itself.
The video is a hoot too. Check out Brix… ACTING! While Mark plays a kind of Lord of the Manor type…This was an accidental hit for The Fall, grazing the actual top forty in the UK in April 1987, but it still sounds typically gnarly and gruff, and aside from their other major hit ( a cover of The Kinks’ Victoria) The Fall never really sold as much again, but continued to maintain a reasonable cult following, even after Brix and Mark split up and Brix left. This seems like a nice seasonal track, full of malevolence but irresistibly catchy, regardless.
Hit The North 